The Eastwood FFA celebrated at its 57th annual banquet on April 7.
Nearly 400 people attended including 91 chapter members. Superintendent Brent Welker welcomed those
gathered.
Students and adults were recognized.
The first awards presented went to the Frobose family and John and Joni Nissen, who were given honorary
membership in the chapter.
“The Frobose Family has been an important part of the local agricultural community for many years,” the
introduction stated. “They operate two local businesses, the Frobose Meat Locker, and the Pemberville
IGA. They have employed numerous FFA members at their businesses as a part of their SAE projects. They
have also been our supplier of chicken for our annual fall barbecue, and have worked with us to make
that a success each year.”
Ben, Zach and Jake Frobose accepted the honorary award.
“John and Joni Nissen have had three students come through our program, all of whom have served as FFA
officers,” their introduction stated. “During this time, they have opened their home to numerous
different activities, including our Greenhand cookout as well as our Food For America program, in which
we teach fourth graders about agriculture. As well as spent many hours driving students to activities.”

The members who will be receiving their State FFA degree at the state convention were recognized. They
are Taylor Hannan, Erica Lang, Austen Nissen, Olivia Ruffner and Anthony Witker.
In order to be eligible for the State FFA Degree, members must have been an active member for at least
one full year. They must be enrolled in the second year of an agricultural education program, have
earned and invested over $3,000 of gross income in an agriculture related job, worked at least 1,000
hours in an agriculture related field, or a combination thereof.
They must also be able to demonstrate correct parliamentary procedure, present a five-minute speech, and
serve as an officer, a committee chairman, or an active participant of a major committee.
Three chapter officers were recognized for their officer books for the year; Erica Lang received a gold
medallion for her secretary book; Owen Brinker received a gold medallion for his treasurer’s book; and
Taylor Hannan received a gold medallion for her chapter scrapbook as reporter.
Proficiency awards are designed to recognize students for excelling in their Supervised Agricultural
Experience Programs. In order to participate in a proficiency category, students must complete their
record books, and a lengthy application. Molly Baumgartner competed in the Ag Sales Proficiency Award.
Her work consisted of working at the Frobose Meat Locker. She placed third in the district.
Meghan Melcher competed in the Fruit Production placement proficiency award area. She has worked 1,300
hours at Apple View Orchards where her responsibilities included spraying, watering, harvesting and
selling apples, and pressing cider. She has placed in the top two in District 1 and is a state finalist,
meaning that she has placed in the top four overall. She will find out her final placing on stage at
State FFA Convention in May.
Jamie Lahey competed in the Poultry Production Proficiency Area. She raises market turkeys, market
broilers, fancy ducks, pullets, and fancy chickens. Jamie raises her market birds and sells them to
local individuals and also takes some of them to the Wood County Fair. In all, she raised more than 100
birds last year. She has placed third in District 1.
Owen Brinker competed in the Sheep Production Proficiency Award area. Owen raised over 20 sheep during
his freshman year. He has his own flock of ewes and has sold the offspring market animals as part of his
SAE, in addition to raising some of them and exhibiting them at the Wood County Fair. Owen has placed
third in District 1.
In addition the top finishers in the Career Development events were recognized.
Among the highlights was the Parliamentary Procedure team which competed at the state finals where the
placed third in their room at the state level. It was the chapter’s first time to make the state finals
in that contest.
Madison Finley competed in the extemporaneous contest this year. She received first place in both the
county and district level. She placed sixth in her room at the state contest.
The chapter sold over $30,000 worth of fruit this year and in one day, over 90 students made more than
150 baskets of fruit.
David Russell was the chapter winner of the fruit sales, selling 48.75 units. Ross Beaverson sold 43
units of fruit and placed second. In third place is Austen Nissen, with 40.5 units of fruit. In fourth
place selling 37.5 units of fruit is Cooper Kingery. And in fifth place Molly Baumgardner with 35 units
sold.
This year the chapter did well with chicken barbecue sales with more than 1,300 meals sold.
Montgomery Kramer, selling 53 meals was the top salesman; followed by Rory Farmer in second place with 47
meals and Kyla McCoy in third with 41 meals sold.
Students also received scholarship awards.
The leadership award is given to freshman, sophomore, or junior students who are not yet officers, yet
have shown potential for leadership in the FFA, school and community and have not previously received
the award. Freshmen leadership awards went to Hannah Lang, Addie Young, Dylan Hoffman, Megan Graham,
Mikayla Cully, Haillie Downard, Ava Kiefer, Jesse Sundermeier, Cole Kiefer, Kaitlyn Luidhardt, Kaylynn
Simon and Kayla Finch.
Sophomore leadership awards were presented to Jacob Hall, Bryce Maynard and Reegan Sheets.
The Star Greenhand award is an award given to first year members in the FFA and this year both both
Mikayla Cully and Jesse Sundermeier were recognized.
The Dekalb Award is presented as the Top Senior in Agriculture Award and this year was presented to Jonna
Nissen. She has been an officer her last three years, serving as secretary, then vice president and was
this year’s president.
The Ag Credit 110% Award was presented to Katie Konecny who was introduced as “a student who brings a
positive attitude with her to everything that she does.”
The Star Chapter Production Award winner is Nick Schuerman.
The Star Chapter Ag Placement Award is the strongest Ag Business Placement in the chapter. It is based on
SAE placement project, FFA activities, and knowledge gained in the work place and was awarded to Olivia
Ruffner.
Various memorial scholarships were presented to the outstanding students.
The Wood County Soil and Water Award is given to the Eastwood student with the high individual score at
the District Soils Contest. This year’s winner is Jonna Nissen.
The 2019-20 officers were installed.